Tiny Vessels
by Alas Vomit
Summary: Sirius is accepted into a foreign exchange program which will send him to America for five weeks. Loosely based on Death Cab for Cutie's Tiny Vessels Will be continued once school ends
1. Chapter 1

Dumbledore appeared out of thin air in the Owlery. He could just make out Sirius Black's silhouette against the fading spring night.

"Sirius," he said lightly, staying put, "have you told–"

"How do you do that?" Sirius rudely interrupted, spinning on his heel and glaring at the headmaster.

"Do what, dear boy?"

"Do that," he spit more sourly than he intended, "just appearing out of nowhere. No other wizard can do it. It's odd."

"Oh, that. It is just one of my many oddities," he said lightheartedly, almost laughing to himself, "but it is not the matter presently at hand. I will ask once more. Have you told your friends that you were accepted?"

"Yes. Not really. Well, no," Sirius faltered over his words, "but I don't think I want this anymore. I don't want to go." He shook his head violently as if this action would rid him of the current situation. It had been Dumbledore's idea in the first place; Sirius would attend the two major wizarding schools in North America to extend the educational and cultural unity that would be needed in the upcoming years. 'Whatever that means,' Sirius thought.

"Well," Dumbledore said thoughtfully, leaning against the wall next to Sirius who had remained ignorant of the old man's movements until now, "I cannot force you into this, Sirius. Only you can make your own decisions, but I find that sometimes the choices we make are not always for our benefit." He let the words linger in the air for a moment before continuing. "It is just a five week program. You will stay at each school for fifteen days, and the remaining will be spent in transport. Oh, and remember that you will represent Hogwarts while you are there. If you turn this down, I always can ask Mr. Snape if he would be so kind as to replace you," he added, a smirk pulling on the corner of his thin lips.

Sirius stared at Dumbledore for a few moments before cursing under his breath. "I don't want to leave my friends, and what about NEWTS?"

"If you were to accept, you would leave within a week and return in mid-May. I feel confident that you will prepare while abroad, and upon your return, extra lessons will be offered to you if you so desire. As for your friends, they will also be here when you return. You may correspond with them through owls or the Floo Network. Sherbet-lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked, extending a silver tin.

"Thank you, sir," Sirius said before plucking a treat out of the container. "I guess I should tell everyone tonight if I'm going to leave in a couple days."

A smile flitted onto Dumbledore's features. "I assume so, and you may want to begin packing. You will leave on Saturday. Now, I have a meeting with Miss Evans. I will arrange for someone to deliver the proper paperwork. Good evening, Mr. Black." His voiced faded as his body disappeared.

Sirius remained in the Owlery for some time afterwards, only retreating to duck into the kitchens and order up some food.

Several hours later, Sirius clambered through the portrait hole, feeling quite tired after eating all of that turkey. He spotted Remus and Peter first; they were situated on Sirius' favorite two chairs, apparently locked in a very intense game of Wizard Chess. For how dim-witted Peter seemed to be at times, his only competition at chess was Moony. Sirius stood by the entrance trying to find James in the throng but to no avail. He thought that James could possibly in the dormitory, so he quietly made his way over to his friends.

Vaulting over the back of the couch, Sirius landed next to Peter and gave a hoarse "Boo!" in his ear, effectively causing the plump boy to squeak in surprise. Moony glanced up from the board and began chuckling at the scene.

"So," Sirius began, "I was accepted into the program. I leave on Saturday."

"That soon?" Moony said disbelievingly. "Are you sure it's not next Saturday?"

"Positive. Dumbledore said that he was having the 'proper paperwork' sent up to the dorm tonight."

"Oh," said the two boys in unison.

Sirius studied both boys closely before asking, "What do you mean 'Oh'?"

"What else was there to say?" Remus said, pausing for an answer. When Sirius couldn't think of a response, he continued calmly, "Have you told James yet?"

"Nope," Sirius said, "I haven't even seen him. D'you know where he is?"

"Yeah," Peter piped up, "he headed up to the dorm a good bit ago."

"Ok," said Sirius happily. "Well, you two are kind of boring, so I'm off. See ya!"

"Mmhmm," they said and shifted their attentions back to the game as their friend swung himself back over the sofa.

Sirius lethargically made his way up the staircase. As he reached the door, he thought he heard hushed moaning coming from inside. He paused for only a second, but when the noise did not reoccur, he pushed his way into the dormitory.

"James," he called out in a weak voice, "Dumbledore just told me– Holy shit! What is Evans doing in your bed?" he was quick to exclaim when he noticed that his best mate and his best mate's long-time crush were currently tangled up in James' sheets. Both parties stared at each other for a few moments; James had a goofy smile plastered on his lips, Lily looked like someone had just shot her dog, and Sirius thought his head was going to explode. Sure, James had occasionally walked in on him and his latest fling, but that was last year and this, this was different. Quick to think, he inefficiently recovered the awkward silence by saying, "Well, it's good to see you two getting along." Then, "Yeah, well, I better be going now."

Sirius spun on his heel and promptly headed down the stairs. He needed to have another round down in the kitchens. As he passed Remus and Peter, he noticed that they both looked like they had stopped breathing quite a while ago. "Yeah, yeah, you can laugh now," he called to them, and they began to convulse in laughter. "Whatever," he whispered under his breath, wondering why he was so irritated that this was happening. Normally, he would just crack a joke at James and poke a little fun at Lily. _When did I turn into such a sensitive ass?_


	2. Chapter 2

The weak, spring dawn cast dark shadows across the Quidditch Pitch. The air was chilled, and the grass was sleek with the early morning dew. In the middle of the field lay Sirius, staring up at the disappearing stars. After the house elves had expelled him from the kitchens, he somehow had wandered onto the pitch, hoping to find somewhere to think about the foreign exchange offer.

'Sure,' he thought, 'this is great. I mean this is a perfect opportunity to get out there. That's why Dumbledore offered it to me in the first place. He knew I wanted this; everyone knew I wanted this. So, why don't I want to go?'

No matter how hard he thought about it, he never reached a definite conclusion. So, eventually, he ended up glassy-eyed and completely zoned out.

Then, quite suddenly, someone whispered in his ear, "What are you doing?" successfully shocking him out of his lethargic state.

Sirius jumped to his feet and reached for his wand. His eyes tried to focus on the person that had snuck up on him, but all he could make out was a blurry figure with long, straight blonde hair, kneeling on the grass. He blinked several times before she came into view. He stashed his wand in his pocket and threw himself next to the girl, taking her down with him.

"Good morning, Amelia," he said to her, sending her a heart-warming grin. "You scared me."

"Good morning, boyfriend," she responded, reaching for his hand. "I know, but you never answered my question."

"The one that you nearly killed me with?" he asked. Amelia nodded. "Well, I walked in on James and Lily doing God knows what last night, and I went down to the kitchens to try to wash the image from my memory."

"And you got buzzed off of Butterbeer and came out here?" she asked, a bit disapprovingly.

"Well, not exactly. I was sipping out of the stashed Firewhiskey down there when I accidentally knocked a bunch of towels onto the stove. Did you know that Hogwarts' towels catch fire just like that?" he asked, snapping his fingers.

"Actually," Amelia chuckled, "I did not. Go on."

"So, the bastards kicked me out, literally. And since I needed to think some, I came down here. I guess I sort of spaced out."

"Just sort of?"

"Yeah, just sort of. Is breakfast being served yet?" Sirius questioned.

"That's why I came to look for you. James said he saw you on the pitch, but when I asked him what you were doing out here, he said that he didn't know, but you had been standing in the middle of it for a long time now," she commented. "Did he come out here?"

"Naw, he would have woken me up or something," Sirius responded before thinking about what she had said.

"So, how did he know?"

"Oh," Sirius sighed, realizing what she was asking. He may have liked Amelia a lot, and she may have been the only girl that Sirius had dated for over five months, but that did not mean that he could not still hold some secrets from her. The map was just one of those things. "I don't know. He must have heard from someone."

"Right," Amelia murmured, sensing that he was holding something back. "Let's go get you changed and fed."

"Ok," Sirius agreed, standing up and offering Amelia a hand.

Amelia grasped his wrist, and he pulled her to her feet. Together, they walked up to the castle.

After changing into dry clothes, Sirius met Amelia in the Gryffindor common room.

"You ready to go?" he asked.

"Yeah," she mumbled, standing and walking over to the portrait hole.

Sirius noticed that she had a folded newspaper under her arm.

"You coming?"

She shot him a glare so cold that Sirius felt him stomach drop. She saved that look for when she was especially angry with him.

"Yeah," Sirius responded weakly. He lamely followed Amelia through the portrait hole and down several flights of stairs before he bottled up enough courage to voice up. "What did I do now?" he asked.

Amelia looked determinedly at the oaken railing that her dainty hand was rested on. She breathed a couple of times for measure, and then turned her steely gaze upon her boyfriend. "It's not what you did," she whispered coolly, "but what you didn't do." She whipped the paper from under her arm and shoved it at Sirius' chest. He stared blankly at it. "Read it," she demanded. "Read the second page."

Sirius stared at Amelia pained face, trying to think of what could be in the _Prophet_ that could upset her so much. After a moment, he unfolded the paper and recognized it as not the _Daily Prophet_ but the _Hogwarts Headliner_. The main story was about the recent Quidditch match against Hufflepuff. A picture of the victorious Gryffindor team flashed across the page. Sirius smiled briefly at how good he looked even after a rough match before continuing to search for the offending article.

He flicked to the second page, and immediately, a picture of a large castle shining in the sun caught his attention. His eyes scanned the story; it was about him and the foreign exchange program.

"You just couldn't tell me," Amelia choked out when she saw Sirius' eyes come to a rest.

Sirius looked at the picture once more then to his girlfriend. "Mee, I was going to tell you," he pleaded. "I swear it, I was. You gotta believe me. I…"

"Sirius," Amelia sighed, "just stop. I know you keep things from me, but I always figured they were small. This, this isn't small. You are going to America for over a month." Her eyes trained themselves on Sirius' weathered t-shirt. She reached out a hand and smoothed out a wrinkle. "I thought I meant more to you," she said in a barely audible whisper.

"You do, Mee, you do. I swear it. I was going to tell today. I haven't even told James–"

"Of course, you didn't tell me," Amelia interrupted, her nature quickly changing from hurt to angry, "because James had to know first, right? You didn't tell me where you went last night. I was worried sick, but you told James, I bet. You probably told Peter before me! You never think about me as your girlfriend!"

"It's not like that!" Sirius said, finding himself angry that she could think that he would put everyone else before her. "You always are just getting mad over nothing!"

"It is not nothing. You can't keep things from me," Amelia fumed. "I'm your girlfriend! I have a right to know where you disappear to once a month with your friends and why I can't meet your family! 'That's confidential!' isn't gonna cut it anymore. It was all right when we were friends; it was all right when we just started dating; it's not cool when you say you wanna take our relationship to the next level! You can't have it both fucking ways!"

"You don't know what you are talking about, Amelia!" he burst. Sirius had not used her first name in an argument since last year when they first met. "I can't tell you some things. You just don't know what you are talking about!"

"I know I don't. That's why this, " she jabbed a finger between Sirius and herself, "will never work."

"It never would have," he hissed, feeling for the first time out of control. He hated feeling that way: hurt and lost and alone.

"No, Sirius Black," Amelia spit out, "it wouldn't! You are just too goddamn self-centered! So, just run along, and leave me the fuck alone!" With that said, she stormed back up the staircase.

Sirius stared at her retreating back before continuing to the Great Hall. On his way, he passed several first years. When they saw his contorted features, they nearly flattened themselves against the wall. Sirius quickly passed by them, arriving in the Hall in less than a minute.

He took a seat next to James and across from Remus and Peter, grabbing all the food he could.

"Are you ok, Padfoot?" Remus asked.

Sirius glanced up and saw the rest of the Marauders looking at him. He glared at them for a moment before he let out a sigh. "Amelia and I had a row."

"Amelia?" Peter asked.

"Yeah, she was my girlfriend," Sirius said, looking the boy up and down.

"I know that," Peter answered, annoyed. "It's just that you haven't called her that since forever."

"Well, get used to it."

Remus and James gave each other a questioning glance. Remus nodded and asked, "What about?"

"The row? It was about the program, but, whatever, she was just like the rest, just she wouldn't let me in her pants after the first week." He turned his attention back to his food, picking at everything while eating nothing.

"You got accepted, I'm assuming, then," James piped up.

"Yeah, Dumbledore told me last night."

"Are you going?"

"Yeah, maybe it will do me some good to get away. I'll leave this Saturday."

"Two days," James murmured, looking to his best friend. "How long?"

"Like five weeks."

"Oh."

The group sat in silence until Sirius pushed his plate away. "I've got homework to finish."


End file.
